Summary
On September 2, 2026, a configuration update that began at approximately 4:44 PM PDT caused errors for some users starting or continuing conversations in ChatGPT Work Mode. The update prevented affected requests from being processed correctly. All affected services recovered by approximately 5:10 PM PDT.
Impact
Users attempting to send messages in ChatGPT Work Mode encountered errors, preventing affected turns from producing a response. The disruption affected both new conversation attempts and additional turns in existing conversations.
Root Cause
A configuration update intended to enable an additional service unintentionally removed access required by existing services that process Work Mode requests. This caused affected requests to fail before a response could be generated.
Resolution
We restored the previous configuration at approximately 5:01 PM PDT. Error rates subsequently returned to normal, and we confirmed full recovery at 5:10 PM PDT.
Prevention and Improvements
We are working on the following improvements to reduce the likelihood and impact of similar incidents:
Improve monitoring during configuration rollouts. Add regression detection and alerting to progressive configuration releases so increases in errors can be identified earlier, while the change is still reaching a limited population. We are using this incident to validate the analysis and determine appropriate observation periods before further rollout.
Strengthen automated review of targeting changes. Improve configuration change assessments to highlight when a proposed rule would remove access from existing users or internal services, particularly when the intended change is only to expand access. We are adding this incident as a regression test for those assessments.
Tighten controls on the affected configuration. Restrict production changes to designated maintainers and require owner review for changes to targeting and rollout settings, while maintaining a documented emergency rollback process.
We apologize for the disruption to your work. We are improving these safeguards to make ChatGPT Work Mode more reliable.
